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New FAA Medical Process with MedXPress

It was that time again to renew my FAA medical, and if you are like me then you are new to the FAA's online process. The FAA have stream lined the process on a new web site at medxpress.faa.gov. The Stuck Mic AvCast did a recent episode on the process on MedXpress. Having just finished I'll recap what I did.

First if you are a 20-something like me the the online form at MedXpress is extremely easy to fill out to set up an account on the MedXpress site. The site only has one form to fill out. FAA Form 8500-8. This is the old form that you used to fill out at the doctors office. After filling it out online you can print it out and save it as a PDF file. I love saving things as a PDF I have a folder in the DropBox cloud service that I keep all of my important papers so I don't lose it.

This online process is just for the FAA Form 8500-8 so if you have any special considerations those must still be filled out by hand. I recently got LASIK and didn't really know what to do. I asked around on the web and some one said to call AOPA. They have a medical staff there to answer question. I called them up and they said I need to have my Optometrist fill out the FAA Form 8500-7. I did and brought it with me to my Aviation Medical Examiner (AME).

I am pretty young and don't really have problems with my medical. Since moving to San Diego I wanted to find a AME that was the best price and I think I found him. He is retired, only works 2 days and only does aviation medicals. The best part is he only charges $60. (I know score.) The office was a little behind and since I didn't had extra paperwork or any work really for them they only charged my $40. I hope everyones medical experience can be that good.

The medical it self is no longer a thick brown paper with embossed numbers on top. Its now just a computer print out that you cut out the medical.

When I saw it I was initially turned off. It's just a piece of paper and a computer print out but then I thought its only a computer print out. Meaning I'll scan it and put it in the DropBox on my computer and if I lose or it gets ruined since it's just a print out I'll just print another one. Too easy. Thank FAA for making it simple.

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